When Angels Ride Harleys

I was nervous. I had never driven an RV before, but I found that whichever way I turned the wheel, the rest of the vehicle followed.

I felt confident now, and we had to drive through only one large city on our trip from Hazelton, British Columbia, Canada, to Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States of America. I stuck closely behind my husband, who was driving our pickup truck, pulling a trailer with my horse inside. “Whew! We made it!” I breathed a sigh of relief after we got past the last bit of construction and left Edmonton.

On the open road now. “We can do this,” I exulted.

Just then, my husband turned off onto a side road.

That is odd, I thought, it will be so hard to turn around. I wasn’t happy when he stopped, got out of the pickup, and walked to the RV.

“There is something wrong with the pickup,” he said.

“We need to drive back into town to Canadian Tire.” I reluctantly agreed and followed him to the parking lot. But the service at the desk was disappointing.

“No, we can’t get to your vehicle for another week.” “What? We have a horse out there and have an important appointment at Mayo Clinic.

We can’t stay here!” The man busily gave me a couple of other places to call and returned to his desk. The calls brought the same response.

No one was available to look at the truck.

As I ended the last call, I was wailing, “But I have a horse in there. We can’t stay here a week!” At that moment, a gray-haired man on a Harley Davidson motorcycle headed toward the store door instead stepped over to us.

“I couldn’t help hearing your conversation.

I have a friend that can help.” Another couple of phone calls, and we were now a parade led by a flashy Harley, followed by an old horse trailer and truck, and then the RV. Our kind rescuer led us to his mechanic friend, who quickly looked and pronounced he could fix it without even removing the horse from the trailer and told us there was a great Chinese restaurant around the corner where we could eat while we waited. Was our new Harley friend an angel? Maybe not, but the angels sent him.

Sherry Taujale Shrestha